DMW Motorcycle: No, It’s Not a Typo

Owner Tom Arnott is used to having to explain the name of the company that built his DMW model P200. “You mean BMW?” is a frequent response.

Many also confuse the initials with famous German brand DKW. But DMW is as English as steak and kidney pie. Perhaps the DMW brand is such a conundrum because in its 50 years of existence, the company produced just around 15,000 motorcycles, with precious few leaving Britain’s shores.

Dawson’s Motors Wolverhampton was formed in the early-1940s at Bell Place, Wolverhampton, in Britain’s industrial West Midlands. William Leslie “Smokey” Dawson was a well-known racer in flat track and speedway races in his native Merseyside. The story goes that in the dust, smoke and mayhem of a grass-track race, Dawson was confused with Australian rider “Smokey” Stratton. In spite of the dubious origin, his adopted nickname stuck.

Ineligible for the enlistment in World War II because of old racing injuries, Dawson formed DMW around 1942 to market some of the innovative motorcycle components he had developed. Among these was the “Telematic” telescopic front fork, sold as an upgrade from the then-ubiquitous girder type. Dawson claimed his design circumvented BMW’s own telescopic fork patents; but it’s also likely given the war, that the combatants’ intellectual property rights could be safely ignored. Dawson also designed and built a swinging fork conversion kit to add rear suspension to the almost exclusively rigid-framed motorcycles of the day. These conversions became popular when racing resumed after Europe’s local difficulties.

Dawson was first an inventor and innovator. It was said he lacked the entrepreneurial and financial aptitude required to run a business manufacturing complete motorcycles. So he partnered with local businessman Harold Nock of Metal Profiles Ltd. Production was moved from Wolverhampton to the Metal Profiles factory on Valley Road in Sedgley, the Wolverhampton premises being too small. Nock and Dawson had different ideas about the kind of motorcycles they should build. With his background in competition, Dawson wanted to build sporting machines, relying on racing success to drive sales. Nock had his eye on the commuter market instead.

By 1948, Dawson decided to leave the company and emigrated to Canada, where he worked for the Avro Company on the Arrow interceptor project. The project was axed in 1959, and a year later, Dawson returned to the U.K., settling in his home region of Merseyside. So the motorcycles that bore his name were produced after he had left the company.

DMW Motorcycles after Dawson

In the 1950s, Nock and DMW joined numerous other small British motorcycle manufacturers in building commuter bikes fitted with the ubiquitous Villiers 2-stroke engine — though the DMW was considered a cut above the rest, alongside Greeves and Ambassador.

Announced in 1949, the first DMW motorcycle in this line was a lightweight road machine powered by a 122cc Villiers 10D single (50mm x 62mm) with a 3-speed transmission in unit with the engine. (Some sources report that a 98cc version with Villiers 1F engine was also available; if so, it would have had a 2-speed transmission with gearshift controlled by a handlebar lever.) The new machine went into production in 1950 and the company was soon producing 50 motorcycles a week.

1951 brought a new frame using square section tubes and fitted with Metal Profiles’ own front fork and a rigid frame. A 200cc version with a Villiers 197cc 6E engine of 59mm x 72mm was added that year, and both models were available in standard or deluxe versions. Ironically, given Dawson’s swingarm patent, a plunger rear suspension was offered as an option! At London’s prestigious Earls Court motorcycle show in 1953, DMW showed a new model fitted with the also new 4-speed Villiers 224cc (63mm x 72mm) model H1 single. This engine was carried over into a new deluxe DMW for 1954, the Cortina.

The Cortina employed an all-new frame with square section top tube and front down tube welded to a pressed-steel center section that carried the rear engine mountings, rear suspension mounts and also formed part of the rear fender. The pressing included compartments for the battery and tool kit. Another pressed steel extension bolted to the rear frame section to cover the rear wheel. The final drive chain was fully enclosed. The enclosure theme continued with the deeply valanced front fender, and a neat headlight nacelle carrying the speedometer, ammeter and lighting control. Battery, rectifier and tool kit were accessible by raising the generously padded dual seat.

Also introduced in 1954 was the model P200 Mk1, which included many of the Cortina’s features (like the special frame) but fitted with a 197cc Villiers 8E engine and a 3-speed transmission. Based on period photographs and advertisements, the P200 could be purchased with either the Telematic front fork or the leading link Earles type. Images of both styles can be found on the web with no apparent explanation. Again, one might speculate that this was because of a patent royalty dispute, though no evidence of that is extant.

DMW under Nock was just hitting its stride in the mid-1950s — a boom in motorcycle sales in the U.K. helped. A 150cc model otherwise similar to the P200, the Leda, with Villiers 30C (55mm x 62mm) arrived in 1955: and when Villiers announced a completely new engine in 1956, the 249cc (50mm x 63.5mm) 2T twin, DMW was among the first in line.

So for 1957, DMW (along with most of the other Villiers proprietary users like Ambassador, Cotton, Francis-Barnett, Greeves, James, Panther, and Royal Enfield) announced a new model to employ the novel powerplant. The DMW Dolomite also offered an Earles front fork and optional electric start using the Ciba Dynastart system. The Bambi scooter joined the range that year, using a Villiers 98cc 4F engine in a pressed steel monocoque chassis with 2-speed gearshift. A 324cc version of the Dolomite was briefly available in 1959 using the 57mm x 63.5mm Villiers 3T twin.

DMW also employed the 250cc 2T in a novel large scooter/motorcycle cross called the Deemster. Introduced in 1962, it offered the large wheel stability of a motorcycle with the bodywork of a scooter. Though civilian sales were limited, the Deemster found favor with rural police forces, especially when a covered version (anticipating the BMW C1 by 40 years!) offered superior weather protection. The distinctive bodywork included paired 5-inch head lamps.

DMW’s product range was rationalized in 1962 with the purchase of Ambassador motorcycles, and by 1966 the Deemster remained the only street machine in production. Just the Hornet race bike with Villiers Starmaker engine and the Highland trials machine made it to 1967, when DMW effectively ceased motorcycle production. Though it wasn’t the last of DMW’s connection with Villiers. The latter company was bought by Manganese-Bronze holdings around 1965, effectively ending the proprietary engine business. However, Metal Profiles did buy jigs and tools from M-B and continued supplying Villiers parts and some engines into the 1970s.

Tom Arnott’s 1954 DMW P200

When Tom Arnott immigrated to British Columbia from Scotland in 2020, he brought two motorcycles: arriving with him was a 1980 BMW R65; and a bike that had been in his family from when it was new in 1954, a DMW P200 Mk1.

“Due to COVID restrictions in the U.K. we had to bring our moving plans forward,” says Tom. “We were given 4 days to pack up all our house contents and have it loaded into a 40-foot shipping container.” The two motorcycles were packed into crates provided by the shipping company and arrived six weeks later. “Registering the bikes at Canadian customs was fairly straight forward and it helped that the customs officer being a keen biker.”

“From my early years in the Sixties, I can remember my father coming home from work on his DMW P200. He had bought the bike new from Gibson’s bike shop in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, for £135 in 1954 when he was 24 years old.”

Tom’s father was a railroad engineer driving steam locomotives and had to travel to work in all conditions, including the Scottish winter. He had traded his BSA Bantam for £60 toward the DMW. “The roads were not treated with salt, as today,” says Tom, “but ash was used to give purchase on snowy roads. Unfortunately, this would compact and cause ruts. Travelling to work meant that the bike would be in top gear and both feet were used to steady the rider.” Tom remembers his father’s riding gear consisted of his railroad oilskins, RAF flying boots and gauntlets. In 1962, with more “bairns” on the way, more capacious transportation was needed. Tom’s father bought a BSA Golden Flash with a Watsonian double-adult sidecar. Tom remembers journeys with his mother in the front seat with his younger brother, while he sat in the back with his sister.

“I recall the trips in the sidecar being really fun,” says Tom, “however, when I think about it now there was absolutely minimal protection for any of us. My father would wear a helmet but occasionally he would wear his old national service army beret!”

Like most families at the time, the Arnott’s joined the trend in trading the combination for a car, a Morris Minor Traveler, “much to my father’s great sadness,” says Tom. On his father’s passing in 2014, Tom inherited the DMW, which had evaded being sold thanks to his father’s inability to part with it.

“The DMW had been stored in the garden shed. When I finally dug it out of the shed, 50 years of Scottish winters had taken its toll, and the metalwork and engine were both in very poor condition.”

Tom had no prior experience of motorcycle restoration, and indeed didn’t get his motorcycle license until 2012. “I was not sure where to go with this project but I found out that there was a local vintage and classic motorbike club in Peebles, the town in Scotland where I lived.” Tom was able to make contact with local members who provided information and assistance.

“Although still a huge learning curve for me, I was put in contact with the many folk who helped me through the project,” says Tom. “It was obvious, that due to the rarity of the bike, getting parts was going to be difficult if not impossible. Fortunately, the bike was intact. I was able send off the original parts, such as the exhaust, and have new parts made.” However, the engine had seized and was shipped back to Villiers in the U.K. for rebuild.

“Like most of you who have restored old motorbikes, the original budget you have in your mind and the final costs never are quite the same. I really enjoyed the restoration, but at times found the whole project so frustrating, but I guess that is all part of the journey.”

“I have really enjoyed the challenge of restoring a vintage bike. I have attended a number of vintage rallies and won best bike in class several times. I have met so many interesting and helpful folk through the club and at the rallies. I am now ready for my next project; however, my wife is not so enthusiastic!” MC

Dawson’s Patents

Smokey Dawson left the company that bore his name in 1948, but while with the company he had registered three patents that might have earned him some money.

There was the Telematic front fork patent, which was said to circumvent BMW’s own telescopic fork patents. It’s not clear how Dawson achieved this. And many other British companies were working on their own telescopic fork at the same time. Royal Enfield, for example, demonstrated a telescopic fork in 1941.

It’s also confusing that Metal Profiles, the company that owned the DMW brand from 1948-on, was in the business of making telescopic forks, presumably adopting Dawson’s design. That said, throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, DMW motorcycles were sold with both a telescopic fork and a leading-link fork of the type patented in 1951 by Ernest Earles.

A second patent for a swinging fork rear suspension appears to incorporate similar ideas to the McCandless brothers’ Featherbed frame — though it also featured a snail cam near the pivot for easy chain tension adjustment — an idea later adopted by the Rickman brothers and BSA.

A third patent concerned the use of a dual-sided front brake, intended to eliminate the twisting forces on the front wheel inherent in using a single-sided brake. But Vincent was using a double-sided front brake as early as 1934.

Unluckily for Dawson, and in spite of agreements to the contrary, Harold Nock let the patents lapse anyway.

French Connection

In 1953 DMW introduced a pair of street machines built around 4-stroke OHV engines of 125cc and 170cc from Ateliers de Mécanique du Centre (AMC) in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Two competition engines, a SOHC 250cc and DOHC 125cc were also sourced for the Hornet race bike project. Though unrelated to Associated Motor Cycles of Plumstead, London, there was and is enduring confusion around this period. Ironically, the British AMC company was later to build its own engines, a range of 2-strokes of similar specification to the Villiers units custom designed in Italy by Vincenzo Piatti and built in England.